‘Darkwood’ Dev Details Unlockable Skills And Perks

The procedurally generated indie horror game Darkwood, which was greenlit on Steam this past Summer after a very successful funding campaign, may still be a ways off. Thankfully, that isn’t keeping developer Acid Wizard Studio from teasing bits and pieces of the game on a pretty consistent basis. Most recently, they detailed the character progression, including a leveling system that will feature unlockable skills and perks. Read on for more.

It sounds pretty neat. Scattered about the game’s environments is mutated flora and fauna, which you can harvest for essence. You do this by cooking the items and filling up the syringe you see below. Once it’s filled, you inject it, unlocking a mutation that makes your character more capable of surviving Darkwood’s harsh world.

You can also opt out of cooking the collected items, since many of them can also be used to heal wounds, cure poison and add temporary boosts to your stats.

Interestingly, injecting too much can lead to negative effects, which they haven’t detailed yet. I’m guessing that results in less than potentially detrimental mutations that hinder your abilities or lower your stats. Or worse.

Perhaps the coolest thing about this is the skills you unlock after an injection are entirely random. They can be good or bad, but you have to choose one. This adds a certain unpredictable, rogue-like element to the gameplay, which I can’t wait to mess around with whenever the game releases. The developer also confirmed that some of the essence gathered in previous playthroughs will carry over to your next after you die.

If you missed our interview with the developer, where we chatted about the possibility of co-op and a console port, you can find it here.